FORGIVE ME for lacking a sense of humor on the Jeff Kent affair, but I don't find it funny.

Maybe you don't find it funny either, but talk-show hosts and columnists sure do. Last week, I went on the air with Tim Brando, who does a syndicated show for Sporting News Radio. For the first two minutes of the interview, he desperately tried to get me to say the whole car-wash/motorcycle situation was hilarious.

Pardon me, but Kent has a broken bone in his wrist. Maybe I'm too close to the situation, having covered the fellow for five seasons as the Giants' beat writer, but he could have gotten hurt tumbling out of a clown car in drag and I wouldn't have found it funny.

OK, that would be funny.

As it is, one of two unfunny things happened. Either Kent got caught in a lie, or he really did break his wrist falling off his truck and has been railroaded by an uncanny series of mistaken eyewitness accounts and misleading circumstantial evidence.

Either way, a player who has given a lot to the Giants' organization since he arrived in 1997, and must give more in 2002 for the team to win, is unable to play. Be angry with him if you want for getting hurt off the field, be it on his truck or on his motorcycle, but why laugh?

On Sunday, I went on ESPN Radio with Bob Valvano, and he mentioned that most of the e-mail he's received has been virulently anti-Kent. That's more of a national view from fans who haven't watched Kent over the years and form their opinions largely from talk shows, a flawed medium that thrives more on incitement than fact.

Interestingly, when the motorcycle-crash rumors first surfaced, half of my e-mail correspondents (mostly from the Bay Area) suggested the media leave Kent alone, that if he did crash his bike, that was his business. The e- mailers turned against Kent somewhat after news broke that whoever crashed a motorcycle on Hayden Road on March 1 was riding recklessly, but some correspondents still thought the story should die, especially if Kent returns without missing much regular-season time.

The story won't die, of course. When the Giants return home for their exhibition series against the A's this week, an entire flock of Bay Area media that did not cover spring training will ask the questions anew. In every city the Giants visit, Kent can expect visits from the hometown reporters, and they won't be asking about his ranch.

It's fair to ask the questions, because so many remain unanswered, but the inquisitors should understand they are talking to a player who spends up to six hours a day getting his body and hand in the best shape possible so he can play the minute he is able, a man who aches to get back onto the field. And that has nothing to do with the money he might lose if he doesn't.

None of that should exempt Kent from the derision he will hear if conclusive proof emerges that he was the one popping wheelies on Hayden Road. Should it fall that way, criticize the man for taking ridiculous risks. Ask him why he wasn't honest. But don't laugh at him.